


We're The Big Kids Now

by cafephan



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: AU, Angst, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, Pining, Strangers to Friends
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-02
Updated: 2016-04-07
Packaged: 2018-05-30 15:52:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6430786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cafephan/pseuds/cafephan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dan Howell and Phil Lester are two twenty-something strangers, just beginning to head out into the wide world on their own. When they live in opposing flats from each other, will being a self-proclaimed big kid be all that difficult?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. We're The Ones Moving Out

**Author's Note:**

> Yay a new chaptered fic!!
> 
> This fic will very much be an extensive songfic to 'Big Kids' by Megan and Liz (which the title is also from) so I definitely recommend giving it a listen!
> 
> Let's just see how this goes, I hope you enjoy it! (i'll also fix the tags at some point in the future)

“I’m sorry sir, but the lifts are all out of order currently, you’ll have to take the stairs” the receptionist told Dan with a sympathetic smile as she dropped his flat keys into his clammy hand. The first obstacle since his parents dropped him off and he was failing already.

“O-okay” he smiled through his anxiety as he threw his rucksack on his back and picked up two of the moving boxes, ten of which were sitting in the building lobby.

“Have fun!” the receptionist called cheerfully as Dan struggled to fit the boxes through the narrow stairwell doorway, and he huffed in panic as one of the boxes tumbled to the ground, stacks of dvds pouring onto the stone floor in a huge heap.

He placed the other box on the floor beside him as he placed the dvds back into the first box, and wiped the sweat from his forehead, blinking back the hot tears that pricked the back of his eyes, trying to ignore the niggling voice in his head that sang _you can’t do this_ again and again.

In the end, he gave up after closing the box over the newly replaced dvds, and shuffled backwards, his back against the wall, and ran his hands through his hair.

Could he do this?

\--

Twenty minutes later (and the help of a passing porter that helped out in the apartment building from time to time) Dan made it to his floor, and placed the two boxes in front of his door as he fumbled around in his pocket for the keys, lifting them to the lock with shaking hands.

“The first step to the rest of my life” he whispered to himself, not bothering to cringe at how cliché he sounded, all his focus was on lifting the key a centimetre closer to the lock, twisting it open, and seeing his new home.

Until he heard a clatter from just down the hallway, that didn’t come from himself.

Dan turned his head to decipher the noise, and saw a guy a similar height to himself, moving boxes at his feet and bending to retrieve his dropped keys. Upon seeing him drop the keys again, Dan smiled and walked over, wanting to make a good impression on his neighbours and whatnot.

“I take it you’re just moving in, too?” he asked, and the guy jumped slightly, startled, but soon composed himself and leaned against the wall, he laughed heartily.

“Yeah, kind of wondering if I made the complete wrong decision” he replied casually, and Dan immediately nodded, relating completely.

“It’s kind of like, do I want to be completely independent living on minimum wage, or do I still want to be living at home playing a bit of board and have my cooking and cleaning done” Dan shrugged, and it was the other guy’s turn to nod.

“Phil Lester” he introduced, holding his hand out for Dan to shake. Which he did, after introducing himself in return.

“So,” Dan began, and crouched to pick up Phil’s keys, “are you ready for this?” he asked, dropping the keys into Phil’s hand.

Phil raised an eyebrow, and flicked his gaze across the hall to Dan’s flat, where the keys were dangling in the lock.

“Are you?” he asked, and Dan felt a strange surge of confidence.

“Only one way to find out, I guess” he replied, and Phil shrugged, and turned to put his own keys in his lock.

“I guess you’re right. I’ll see you around, Dan” Phil stated before entering his flat with a pile of the boxes he had brought, and flashed Dan another smile.

“Yeah, I suppose you will” Dan spoke to the empty hallway, and staggered a step backwards. The confidence he felt was now replaced with an emotion he couldn’t identify, but he put it down to moving day nerves and shook himself out of it, before turning the keys and kicking the boxes inside to his own flat.


	2. We're The Ones Getting Out

"You've got to be fucking kidding me" Dan huffed in annoyance as the self titled 'easy setup' table collapsed once again, a pile of splinters waiting to happen at his feet.

 

Just as he was rummaging for a hammer from his granddad's old toolbox that he had been gifted to end the table's mocking existence, a knock on the door snapped him out of his socially deprived hysteria.

 

Still wielding the hammer (he couldn't be too careful, he didn't know the building all that well yet) Dan opened the door cautiously, wrapping his free hand around the hammer that much tighter.

 

"Morning, Dan!" Phil's voice was cheerful and chirpy, a polar opposite to how Dan felt. Because of a damn table.

 

"Yeah, morning" Dan replied, loosening his grip on the hammer, loosening his grip on decent vocabulary, too. He had found that he struggled to form sentences around Phil, which resulted in Phil usually carrying the conversation. Why he still bothered to speak to Dan was a mystery to the brunet.

 

"So I was just wondering if you wanted to-" Phil paused to look behind Dan, at the collapsed table in the middle of the living room, instruction pages surrounding it and a pint glass of a clear liquid spilt over the ancient rug. "Tough morning, it looks like"

 

Dan suddenly felt conscious, he just knew that Phil's flat wouldn't be as much of a wreck as this, despite them moving in on the same day.

 

Phil wouldn't have a dusty, shaggy old rug that's older than the building itself. Phil wouldn't have a battered old armchair that his great grandmother died in like Dan does. His flat would be clean and pristine, Dan would wager, like he'd been living there for years. Because Dan and Phil seemed like opposites in everything, and their flats would probably be prime examples. 

 

"You could say that" Dan mumbled, still feeling embarrassed at the state of his flat despite being there days now. 

 

Phil smiled. "Anyway, I was wondering if you wanted to go out?"

 

"What?" Dan shot back instantaneously, the hammer completely slipping out of his grasp in shock of Phil asking such a thing, the tool making a sizeable hole in the wooden flooring.

 

Both men turned their attention towards it (Phil having to peer his head around the doorframe) and Dan blushed, his embarrassment only deepening.

 

"Okay you definitely need some caffeine and a fry-up. My treat" Phil spoke with wide-eyes, his gaze never leaving the hole in the floor and the hammer sticking out of it.

 

"That is true, I'm tired of running on pot noodles and knock-off lemonade" Dan shrugged, grabbing a nearby jacket and stepping into the hallway, being met with Phil's wide smile.

 

"It gets tedious after two days, right?" he asked, and Dan nodded erratically. 

 

It was refreshing having someone else his own age, not long since having graduated university and buying a flat leaving them in extreme debt. Yet Phil succeeded in not letting it show in his expression, whereas Dan failed. His under-eye circles spoke for themselves. 

 

"I'll tell you what" Phil began as they walked down the street away from the apartment building, "once we're done in town I'll help you build your furniture"

 

"Maybe I don't need your help" Dan quipped sarcastically, and Phil threw his head back in laughter.

 

"You've literally dropped a hammer into your floor" he reminded, and Dan felt the colour creep back onto his cheeks. He still blamed the table.

 

"I-"

 

"And not to mention," Phil continued, "you failed to put together a table identical to the one I have that took me all of ten minutes"

 

"Listen, I'm not all that practical, I admit. But that table is cursed or something, possessed!" Dan insisted, and Phil laughed again.

 

"Then let's hope the spirit doesn't attach itself to you, or it doesn't carry any residual energy from when it was savagely manufactured" he joked, as they turned the corner onto a street lined with shops and cafes.

 

"Completely ignoring the sarcasm at the end there, I'm not letting you get away with your ghost hunting knowledge without calling you on it. You're into that stuff?" Dan questioned, feeling excitement build in the pit of his stomach.

 

"You have no idea" Phil stated with a raised eyebrow as he pushed open the door to a cafe and stepped inside, still holding the door open for Dan.

 

"So do you have an Ovilus?" he asked with genuine excitement as he scurried after Phil and the door swung shut behind them, the question earning them a weird look from a passing businessman. 

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry it's been a while since I posted here, updates should be more regular soon
> 
> also if you follow me on tumblr or have read my fic 'Communication', you'll know I have a strong love for/obsession with ghost hunting shows and like to geek out about them so that's leaked in a bit here, it's nice that they're bonding though right
> 
> please leave a kudos/comment and share the fic around if you like it :)

**Author's Note:**

> I deleted my other chaptered fic that I started the other day because I much prefer this one, and I couldn't see the other going very far. But I hope you're excited for this one!! Again, I highly recommend listening to 'Big Kids' by Megan and Liz as this fic is pretty much an extensive songfic of it
> 
> If you liked this first chapter (I know first/introductory chapters are never the most thrilling) please leave a kudos and comment, subscribe for future updates and share it around to anyone else you think might like it, as this fic is exclusive to ao3 and won't be posted anywhere else so the more people it reaches the better :)
> 
> xx


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